Post 59. Le Havre 5. The Genius of Auguste Perret: Making Concrete Beautiful
We booked a guided tour of the Appartement Témoin Perret - a museum showcasing the work of Auguste Perret, the main architect who designed the reconstruction of the city after World War II. The apartment has remained untouched since the 1950s and contains a whole range of furniture, fixtures and fittings from the post-war period.
When Perret arrived in Le Havre, he had tens of thousands of homeless citizens to house, quickly and cheaply. His solution was to treat reinforced concrete as if it were precious stone. Perret organised the entire city centre around one measurement, 6.24 metres. Street widths, building heights and room sizes are all based on that number, which gives the city a strange sort of visual harmony once you notice it.
Prefabricated concrete parts
Rather than pour concrete on site, workers cast standard components - window frames, beams, columns - in factories and slotted them together like a giant Lego set. It was one of the earliest and largest uses of mass-produced, prefabricated concrete in urban history.
"Precious stone" finishes
Perret couldn't stand the idea of smooth, boring grey concrete, so he mixed it with crushed pink granite, yellow sandstone and quartz. Once it dried, workers bush-hammered the surface to chip away the top layer and expose the coloured stone underneath - which is apparently why the buildings shimmer a bit in the Normandy light. The close-up above is from Église Saint-Joseph. I was amazed at this level of detail, since little of it registered with me as a 23-year-old, walking these streets every day.
Frame and infill
Perret separated the structural skeleton of his buildings from the walls, so sturdy concrete columns carried all the weight and the internal walls didn't have to.
That freed him up to design apartments with big windows and open, sun-filled floor plans - decades ahead of their time.
The apartment was incredibly spacious, light-filled and open-plan, with sliding doors to shut off certain rooms if required.
It was heated by a hot air ventilation system that still works today. There was even a rubbish chute in the kitchen, visible on the left of the photo below.
The visit was absolutely brilliant. It is only open on certain days of the week for very limited numbers, and I booked it several weeks in advance. The tour was in French only, but they provided a very detailed booklet in English for Tricia and a few others to follow.
I would highly recommend it, not just to fans of modern architecture but also to fans of recent history. Many of the interiors, fixtures and fittings were familiar to us, and the displays reminded us of "The Red Flat" that we loved when we visited Sofia last year - if interested, the link to that post is here - Post 51. Sofia, Bulgaria. Part 2.
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